My Name Was Mushroom: Wendy Baker’s Journey Beyond the Source Family Cult
A Little Bit Culty
Sarah Edmondson & Anthony “Nippy” Ames
4.6 • 3K Ratings
🗓️ 30 June 2025
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Long before kale smoothies went mainstream, The Source Family was seducing Hollywood with vegan food, free love, and a guru who called himself Father Yod. This wasn’t just LA’s first vegan restaurant – it was a commune where long-haired devotees in white robes took ice-cold showers at dawn, meditated for hours, and followed strict spiritual rules under their bearded leader. Celebrities like John Lennon and Cher might have stopped by for a meal, but for many teen girls – often runaways – this place became home, for better or worse.
Wendy Baker was one of those girls. At 14, she left a traumatic childhood behind for promises of love and enlightenment. Renamed Mushroom, she was swept into a life of chanting, raw vegan meals, and devotion to Father Yod. By sixteen, she had her first child; by nineteen, she was ready to escape.
In this episode, Wendy shares what life was really like in the Source Family – from malnutrition and sleep deprivation to the ego-shaming that kept members silent. She talks about her journey out, her marriage to Bart, Father Yod’s son, and how writing her memoir, My Name Was Mushroom, helped her heal.
For more on Wendy’s journey, check out her website and memoir My Name Was Mushroom.
Trigger warning: This episode discusses childhood trauma, underage relationships, and cult manipulation.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal, medical, |
| 0:03.9 | or mental health advice. The views and opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the |
| 0:07.9 | official policy or position of the podcast and are not intended to malign any religion group, |
| 0:12.1 | club, organization, business, individual, anyone, or anything. |
| 0:25.8 | I know. I'm Sarah Edmondson. |
| 0:27.6 | And I'm Anthony Nippy Ames. |
| 0:30.3 | And this is A Little Bit Calty. |
| 0:31.8 | Cults are commonplace now. |
| 0:34.2 | From fandums to fads, we're examining them all. |
| 0:38.9 | We look at what happens when things that seem like a great thing at first go bad. Every week we chat with survivors, experts, and whistleblowers for real culty stories |
| 0:43.3 | told directly by the people who lived through them, because we want you to learn a few |
| 0:47.3 | things that we've had to learn the hard way. |
| 0:50.0 | For example, if you think you're too smart to get sucked into something culty, you might |
| 0:53.8 | be prime recruitment material, and who knows, you could already be in a cult. |
| 0:58.3 | If you're not aware of your programming, you're probably being programmed. |
| 1:01.6 | So keep listening to find out. |
| 1:03.3 | We'll talk about all sorts of topics on the show, but be aware. |
| 1:06.8 | This podcast might contain stories that could be alarming to some of our listeners. |
| 1:10.6 | So please check our show notes for more detailed descriptions and take care of yourself. |
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| 1:22.7 | Welcome to Season 7 of A Little Bit Calti. |
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